Dr Penna

Researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have created a new probe that can be used to monitor immune system and its response to therapies. They achieved this by altering molecular structure of Gemcytabine and adding radiolabel for this molecule. The uses of this probe include monitoring immune system in cancer patients, and also monitoring immune response during conventional or novel cancer treatment modalities like tumor vaccines.

 
 Researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have modified a common chemotherapy drug to create a new probe for positron emission tomography (PET), an advance that will allow them to model and measure the immune system in action and monitor its response to new therapies….

…Researchers created a small molecule, called FAC, by slightly altering the molecular structure of one of the most commonly used chemotherapy drugs, gemcitabine. They then added a radiolabel so the cells that take in the probe can be seen during PET scanning….

….”Dynamic probes like the one developed by UCLA scientists will allow researchers to learn more about the role of the immune response in cancer, how current treatments affect immune cells, and will allow them to quantitatively monitor responses to new modalities such as tumor vaccines,” Shannon said. “Probes of this type may also help oncologists more rapidly identify tumors that will respond to certain drugs so treatments can be made more patient-specific.”….